Yankees activate Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis from DL, option two to Triple-A

After two rehab games in Trenton, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis are back in pinstripes.(AP)

It’s official: Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis are back in pinstripes.

Both Teixeira and Youkilis were activated from the disabled list on Friday and were in starting lineup for that night’s game against the Red Sox, with designated hitter Youkilis batting second and first baseman Teixeira hitting cleanup.

Pitchers Ivan Nova and Vidal Nuno were optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make room on the 25-man roster. A 40-man roster move was not needed to accommodate Teixeira’s return from the 60-day DL, as the Yankees had an open spot following David Huff’s designation for assignment on Tuesday.

Teixeira has missed the entire season after straining a tendon sheath in his right wrist preparing for the World Baseball Classic, while Youkilis was placed on the DL on April 30 with a lumbar spine strain.

Both men finished two-game rehab assignments with Double-A Trenton on Thursday night; they each played seven innings in the field for the Thunder on Wednesday and Thursday, and both had similar lines of 1-for-5 with a walk at the plate.

As for Nova and Nuno, both will likely slot into the SWB rotation, with Yankees manager Joe Girardi saying that despite Nova pitching out of the bullpen for the Yankees over the last week, the rotation is where the organization envisions him long-term.

“We want him to get stretched out as a starter because that’s what we envision him as,” Girardi said. “He threw 60-plus pitches the other night and we want to keep working him up.”

Nuno, meanwhile, was 1-2 with a 2.25 ERA in five overall appearances for the Yankees and had allowed only three runs over 17 innings in his three starts, and Girardi said his recent success made it all the harder to send the southpaw back to Scranton.

“I would say it’s the worst part of my job (to have to send someone down); you always find it difficult, especially when a guy is doing well,” Girardi said. “But Andy (Pettitte) is coming back to fill in that slot (in the rotation), and we want to keep him stretched out, so we sent him now.”